Wednesday 28 January 2009

New Labour's NHS Legacy

The following list is taken from a GP who has written of the people that she has been emailed by in her local PCT. The list speaks for itself, it tells the tale of the incredibly inefficient and wasteful bureaucratic mess that this government has created in the NHS. There are now more PCT managers than primary care doctors in many areas, there are people with titles that make no sense and the output of their jobs often amounts to even less. Here we have Kafka's PCT list:

* Communications Assistant
* GP Directorate Manager
* PA to Medical Director and PEC Chair
* Assistant Director Commissioning & Informatics
* Medical Directorate Administrator
* Strategic Programmes Director
* Primary Care Manager
* Public Health Project Manager
* Primary Care Commissioning Officer
* Long Term Conditions Administrator
* Resuscitation Educators
* Communications officer (media & campaigns)
* Senior Primary Care Commissioning Manager
* Long Term Conditions Commissioning Manager
* Commissioning Officer
* PA to Head of Urgent Care
* PA to Primary Care Commissioning
* Head of Urgent Care
* PA to Director of Commissioning & Informatics
* Head of Clinical Quality (Commissioning)
* Lead for Quality of care in care homes and End of Life Care
* Locality Manager - Children's Community Service
* Admin Support Primary Care Commissioning
* Information Governance Manager
* PA to Commissioning
* Public Health Strategy Manager
* Acting Co-ordinator (Substance Misuse)
* Liaison Officer
* Senior Administrator & Project Support
* Primary Care (GP) Support and Development
* Commissioning & Information Directorate
* Public Health Nurse Consultant
* Primary Care Development Manager
* Intermediate Care Coordinator
* Chief Executive
* Communications Officer
* Acting Deputy Chief Executive
* Director of Strategic Development
* Associate Director of HR
* Assistant Director of Information
* Primary Care Development Manager
* Clinical Governance Admin Support
* Knowledge Services
* Director of Primary and Community Services
* Public Health Analyst
* Public Health Intelligence Team
* Administration Support Officer
* Sexual Health Commissioning
* Service Development and Market Management
* Commissioning Project Officer
* Mental Health Commissioning Team
* Temporary Clinical Quality Administrator for Primary Care Independent Contractors
* Primary Care Support and Development Manager
* Clerical Officer
* Senior Administrator & Project Support
* Primary Care Commissioning
* Assistant Directors Commissioning & Informatics
* Core Learning Administrator
* Employee & Organisational Development Team
* Long Term Conditions Administration Officer
* Public Health Administrator
* Sexual Health Development Manager
* Clinical Governance Administrator

I hope the government are proud of their achievements. As front line clinicians struggle to meet yet another raft of top down targets, it is amazing that such a wasteful bureaucracy continues to proliferate in such fashion at the time of a recession. Mind you with leadership like we have at the top, with billions burnt on the basis of a stupid whim, who can be surprised that billions continue to go up in smoke producing so little end product?

9 comments:

Elaine said...

omg, I didn't think it could be worse than I thought......

but it is!

Anonymous said...

What scares me is this is simply the list of people making contact.

They're like the flying monkeys to the senior managers' Wicked Witches.

Two separate sexual health contacts? Sounds like Blackpool...

AntiCitizenOne said...

Can I cross post this on National Death Service?

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

This situation doesn't surprise me.

Just before the last election, I remember huge sums of money being thrown at the NHS enabling NuLabour to boast of increased funding.

But it takes a long time to train medical staff and the NHS, being unprepared for vast increases in budgets, was unable to spend wisely.

The easiest option - employ yet more administrative staff.

Garth Marenghi said...

feel free anticitizenone,

having close links to a few GPs I can personally say that PCTs are full of so much waste that it makes me want to cry, it's beyond belief and is now resembling something otu of a Kafka novel,

those who try to justify it simply have no clue or are part of the bureaucracy themselves

Willie said...

I don't see any political party campaigning for their removal, do you? Turkeys and Christmas? Parasites and DDT might be better...

Anonymous said...

I don't think resuscitation educators should be seen as "parasites". Somebody has to do it or every cardiac arrest will be fatal.

Having said this, there are some other people on the list who do look like hangers-on.

Anonymous said...

No doubt there is waste in the NHS, as in every organisation. I have worked in the private sector for most of my working life and it is riddled with inefficiency and bureaucracy. However, writing a list tells me nothing. Are all of these jobs of no value, or some or one? Of this list, specifically which of these jobs adds no value and why? If you are a practitioner I hope you don't treat your patient's symptoms in this way; arriving at a diagnosis on the basis of no detailed evidence but on the basis of what appears to be prejudice.

Anonymous said...

It is worse than this as the NHS is becoming a scape goat for all sorts of abuse. I know of someone who joined as a PA to a director... 8 weeks into the job had been on more courses (how to use powerpoint) than you can shake a stick at (all paid for by the govt) - why not buy a book and read it... and then after all that sent a sick note claiming to be suffering from stress from all the learning ?!?!?!
NHS = Totally abused !!!